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British Fiction

Introduction & Thesis

The purpose of this study is to expand the boundaries of our knowledge by exploring some relevant information relating to the analysis of British Fiction. Fiction continues to be one of the central aspects of cultural production in contemporary Britain. From best sellers to the 'literary', an enormous amount of fiction is produced every year. The term British fiction indicates the set of activities directed to the production of written texts, poetry or prose.

The novel is the most significant cultural phenomenon of the eighteenth century. The increased demand for books enabled the ladies of the middle and upper middle class to have more free time, and also enjoy greater economic opportunities. Great success was the travel books that stimulate not only the imagination but also the pride of a nation of explorers. The stories deal with characters that readers will recognize.

Distinction is made between two types:

Romance, based on imaginative narratives

Novels, in which only the fantastic story that narrates environment and character actions are realistic and credible

The novel becomes a mimesis of existence in which the bourgeois social class is recognized. The bourgeois novel has come down to our day through many changes, adapting to social and historical changes. The novel is a literary genre, characterized mainly by a narrative fiction. Over the centuries, the novel became the dominant literary genre with a multiplicity of sub-genres which emphasize its multifaceted nature (West, pp. 78-83).

The novel belongs to the narrative genre; we can account for complex sequence of events in a novel by establishing the narrative structure of the work and define the general principle of action by the actantial schema that exposes different roles present in the story. One can also define the status of the narrator and narrative points of view and choose the chronological structure of the work. The novel has been and is still being questioned for its vanity and its immorality. Since the eighteenth century, the novel has been a dominant genre in Western literature in connection with the development of the notion of individual and non-religious reflection on the meaning of life. The novel has supplanted the tale and the epic traditions that mark more other civilizations (Persian and Indian in particular), but there are at least two non-European traditions fiction whose characteristics are quite similar: it is the Chinese novel and Japanese traditional novels (Gilson, pp. 12-19).

In this study, the author will select four texts from four different British novelists that provide a thorough picture of British life unavailable in other genres.

Discussion

Daniel Defoe

Considered by many the father of the English novel, Daniel Defoe was undoubtedly one of the most important novelists of the early 18th century. As a product of the Age of Reason, he supported empirical thought, such as that proposed by Isaac Newton in the sciences and John Locke in economics. He rejected all fanaticism and extremes in religion and politics, a fact reflected in his voluminous writings. With a record of more than 500 published works, ...